Page 148 of Beauty and the Billionaire Boss

“How’s Alice?”

“She’s good.”

“Everything’s going okay with her?” I know that her mother has M.S., and Alice looks after her full time, which means it makes it difficult for her to see Kip, unless he flies up there.

“Yeah. I’m still not sure how we’re going to work things out,” he admits. “But I can’t let her go, you know?”

I think about Belle. “Do you think you and she will… you know… get married and stuff? Have kids?”

“I’d like to. I just need to work out the technical issues.”

“How did you know? That she was the one?”

He pauses again. “I guess you don’t, really. Love doesn’t come with a guarantee. But I don’t like being apart from her. I think about her all the time. I’m not sure what the definition of love is, if it isn’t that?”

“Yeah.” I clear my throat. “Okay, see you soon?”

“I’m leaving now, I’ll only be five to ten minutes.”

I end the call, pull on my socks and Converses, and go out the front of my house to wait for him. It’s a beautiful, sunny day, just right to celebrate the birth of the babies.

Sitting on the low wall out the front, I text Belle that Saxon’s boys have been born, and I’m going to see them. She comes back,Oh, that’s amazing news! I’m so thrilled for you all. Have a cuddle with the babies and tell me all about it later!

I will, I reply, ending with a smiley face and a heart.

Kip’s right that love doesn’t come with a guarantee. I guess sometimes you just need to take a chance.

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Belle

Although I miss Damon, the days speed by. In the week I set myself to studying, and I catch up with some old schoolfriends. I have a lot of kids’ parties, mainly at the weekends, and when I’m free, I wander around the city doing magic tricks just for the hell of it.

When Gaby comes back from her honeymoon, I pay her a visit to tell her what I found out about Dad cheating on Mum before she had her affair.

After I’ve finished talking, she quietly says, “I know, Belle.”

I stare at her in shock. “What do you mean? Alex didn’t know.”

“I overheard Dad on the phone once. He was down in the shed, and he didn’t realize I was outside. He was talking to someone—Sherry, I realized later—about Mum, saying how hard life was with her. He said to the person on the phone that he really missed them… and he said a few more intimate things, before I got embarrassed and ran off. But I knew then that he was seeing someone.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Honestly, Belle, I didn’t know how to. It all happened fast, and it was so horrible. We were all so upset.”

“But I’ve blamed her for years,” I say, my voice hoarse.

“And you were right to do so.” Her voice is hard. “It was her fault.”

“She had depression, Gaby. And she was under a lot of pressure.”

“Then she should have quit acting and come home to look after her family. She broke up their marriage, Belle, not him. She’s the one who left, and the one who shacked up with that vile man. I’ll never forgive her.”

I hug her then, because I don’t want to make her unhappy so soon after her wedding, and say, “I’m sorry.”

“It’s not your fault, sweetheart.” She squeezes me before releasing me. “Now, I want you to tell me all about Damon! Juliette told me that something happened on the night of the wedding…”

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